1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to memory on data storage devices and in particular in molecular memory integrated circuits. More particularly, the invention relates to molecular memory integrated circuits for use in micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS).
2. Description of the Related Art
Current generation computer systems use separately manufactured integrated circuits and components assembled on or connected with system boards. Non-volatile data storage is one of the most performance critical components in a computer system. Current systems suffer from data storage technology incapable of matching the performance of other system components, such as volatile memory and microprocessors. Next generation systems will require improved performance from data storage devices.
Nearly every personal computer and server in use today contains one or more hard disk drives for permanently storing frequently accessed data. Every mainframe and supercomputer is connected to hundreds of hard disk drives. Consumer electronic goods ranging from camcorders to TiVo® use hard disk drives. While hard disk drives store large amounts of data, they consume a great deal of power, require long access times, and require “spin-up” time on power-up.
FLASH memory is a more readily accessible form of data storage and a solid-state solution to the lag time and high power consumption problems inherent in hard disk drives. Like hard disk drives, FLASH memory can store data non-volatilely, but the cost per megabyte is dramatically higher than the cost per megabyte of an equivalent amount of space on a hard disk drive, and is therefore sparingly used.
Current solutions for data storage cannot meet the demands of current technology, and are inadequate and impractical for use in next generation systems, such as MEMS. Consequently, it would be desirable to have an integrated circuit that stores data non-volatilely, that can be accessed instantaneously on power-up, that has relatively short access times for retrieving data, that consumes a fraction of the power consumed by a hard disk drive, and that can be manufactured relatively cheaply. Such an integrated circuit would increase performance and eliminate wait time for power-up in current computer systems, increase the memory capacity of portable electronics without a proportional increase in cost and battery requirements, and enable memory storage for next generation systems such as MEMS.